Object data
pen and brown ink, with grey wash; framing line in black ink; with possibly later additions in grey wash
height 102 mm × width 154 mm
Josua de Grave
Nivelles, 1676
pen and brown ink, with grey wash; framing line in black ink; with possibly later additions in grey wash
height 102 mm × width 154 mm
signed: lower right, in brown ink, Josua De Grave:
inscribed on verso: lower centre, in a nineteenth-century hand, in dark brown ink and graphite, T97141 / h. 102 / b 154; lower left, in a nineteenth-century hand, in graphite, Het Huis Pot by Nivelle 16 7/3 76 (exact date expressed as a fraction, month over day, between split year); lower right, in graphite, cy
stamped on verso: centre right, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)
watermark: none
…; collection Willem Frederik Piek (1838-1916), Oudshoorn; his sale, Amsterdam (F. Muller), 1 June 1897 sqq., no. 110c, together with nos. 110a-110d, fl. 80 for all, to the museum (L. 2228), 1897
Object number: RP-T-1897-A-3327
Copyright: Public domain
Josua de Grave (Amsterdam 1643 - The Hague 1712)
He was the son of the French merchant Claude Pietersz de Grave [Graeff] (c. 1597/98-after 1667) and Sara Bols (?-c. 1655) and was baptized in the Oude Kerk, Amsterdam, on 2 July 1643.1 De Grave had three brothers and two sisters.2 He grew up in Haarlem, where the family moved soon after his birth. In 1659, at age sixteen, he entered the Haarlem Guild of St Luke,3 but it is unknown with whom he trained. Based on a drawing dated 1663, depicting a landscape in the vicinity of Paris, now in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (KdZ 2480),4 we know that he moved to Paris during or after his training. De Grave lived in Paris until 1668, after which he moved to Maastricht.
In Maastricht he likely met Barend Klotz (?-?) and Valentijn Klotz (c. 1646-1721), two fellow draughtsmen affiliated with the Dutch army.5 Until 1670, the trio resided in Maastricht, where they made around sixty drawings of the city and its surroundings. Only a handful of these drawings are signed (e.g. inv. nos. RP-T-1946-63 and RP-T-1911-100).6 In the following decades, the three artists accompanied the army of the Dutch States-General under the Stadholder Prince Willem III of Orange Nassau (1650-1702) on their various campaigns: to Bergen op Zoom (1671-early 1672), cities around the Dutch ‘waterlinie’ (1672) and various regions in the southern Netherlands and present-day Belgium (1674, 1675 and 1676).
On 3 December 1670, De Grave married Jenneton de Bisson (1645-?) in Maastricht.7 The newlyweds moved from Maastricht to The Hague, joining De Grave’s sister and his brother, Cornelis, who had moved there already.8 After each military campaign, De Grave returned to The Hague, where he settled permanently after the last campaign in 1676 and died in July 1712.9 Several drawings dated between the 1670s and the 1710s record sights around the city. In the final years of his career, he also produced paintings and drawings of (Italianate) gardens and fantasy landscapes (e.g. inv. nos. RP-T-00-148 and RP-T-1895-A-3063).
Josua de Grave often signed his work, using his full name or a variation, such as J. de Grave or Josua de Grave fecit. In many instances, he also included a location and a date. His signature is usually followed by a colon, then the year (sometimes split, as in this example) and the day and month (expressed as a fraction). His handwriting is quite distinct, using elegant, curly (capital) letters and a typical old-fashioned letter ‘e’. His drawings were initially quickly sketched in graphite or black chalk, after which he applied brown ink lines to further work out the composition. He seemed to have relied on a certain formula for most of his drawings, placing the horizon in the centre of the sheet and scattering the main elements around it. He often included trees, foliage or figures closer to the foreground, creating a repoussoir. De Grave drew his trees by outlining the trunks and branches, then scribbling in the leaves using cloud-like shapes.10 In most instances, in addition to the brown ink composition, grey washes are applied sparingly, particularly for the shadows on houses and roofs, foliage and simple cloud formations. Drawings that are more heavily washed are likely to have been worked up by (a) later hand(s).
Carolyn Mensing, 2019
References
R. van Eijnden and A. van der Willigen, ‘Klotz, Valentijn’, in U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XX (1927), pp. 549-50; R.J.G.M. van Hasselt, ‘Drie tekenaars van topografische prenten in Brabant en elders. Valentijn Klotz, Josua de Grave en Constantijn Huygens Jr.’, Jaarboek Oudheidkundige Kring ‘De Ghulden Roos’ 25 (1965), pp. 145-55; M.H. Breitbarth-van der Stok, ‘Josua de Grave, Valentinus Klotz en Bernardus Klotz’, Bulletin Koninklijke Nederlandse Oudheidkundige Bond 68 (1969), pp. 96-98; J.H. van Mosselveld and W.A. van Ham, Tekeningen van Bergen op Zoom. Topografische afbeeldingen van Bergen op Zoom en omgeving uit de zestiende tot en met de achttiende eeuw, exh. cat. Bergen op Zoom (Markiezenhof) 1973-74, pp. 15-18; G. Gordon, ‘Grave, Josua de’, in J. Turner (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, 34 vols., London/New York 1996, XIII, pp. 323-24
The Rijksmuseum’s collection includes three sheets that, according to inscriptions on the versos, depict a mansion or country house called Huis Pot near Nivelles in Walloon Brabant: the present sheet and inv. nos. RP-T-1897-A-3326 and RP-T-1897-A-3328. No information was found on this house, and it seems it is no longer extant. Based on the drawings, it must have been located outside the city walls, for it is surrounded by trees and farmland. De Grave recorded the house from various angles. He drew the present sheet from the same side as inv. no. RP-T-1897-A-3326, but from a greater distance. As staffage, he included working figures or farmers in the foreground. An original inscription at upper centre has been erased and concealed under grey wash; some darker patches of grey wash in the lower foreground might also have been added later.
Carolyn Mensing, 2020
R.J.G.M. van Hasselt, ‘Drie tekenaars van topografische prenten in Brabant en elders: Valentijn Klotz, Josua de Grave en Constantijn Huygens Jr.’, Jaarboek Oudheidkundige Kring ‘De Ghulden Roos’ 25 (1965), pp. 145-92, no. 520
C. Mensing, 2020, 'Josua de Grave, View of Huis Pot at Nivelles, Walloon Brabant, Nivelles, 1676-07-03', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.51795
(accessed 28 April 2024 14:00:55).